As anyone who has ever worked in a secondary school will tell you, they are complex beasts with dozens of moving parts. Keeping the wheels oiled and the cogs turning on a daily basis requires clearly defined layers of management and leadership.
Given the sheer size of most secondaries, a hierarchical structure is vital for the smooth running of the school, day-in, day-out. However, the same cannot be said when it comes to implementing a successful CPD framework. While senior leadership is at the forefront of most major decisions in the life of a school, applying this same hierarchical management structure to staff training is not always effective.
Teachers as classroom experts
In many schools, it is senior leaders who decide on and implement CPD within their settings. The assumption, rightly or wrongly, is that those at the top of the hierarchy are always the most expert at staff development and should therefore design and deliver the CPD framework. This is not necessarily true.
I know from my own experience in leadership that the teachers I oversaw were almost always far more expert in the classroom than me. Here’s the thing: all teachers are professionals, and all teachers want to do the best job they can.
While it is often hard to relinquish control, the reality is, if you give ownership of development to individuals, and trust them to get on with it, you are much more likely to be rewarded with buy-in and engagement.
INSETs and observations
A good example of this is the whole-school INSET day. Aside from the obligatory audience participation and mandatory role-play exercises, INSET days tend to be passive affairs where an in-house or external expert imparts their wisdom to an expectant audience.
The agenda is almost always decided on in response to past events or outcomes. If GCSE English literature results are down one year, senior leaders may decide to address this on an INSET day at the start of the following term. This retrospective approach does little to address real-time practice and can overload teachers.
Then, there is the lesson observation – another traditional CPD favourite. Anyone who has ever been observed by a leader in their classroom will tell you that the overriding feeling leading up to these events is one of fear.
It is virtually impossible to act naturally when someone else is in your classroom. Children sense it, teachers sense it and so do those observing. Most lesson observations are hardly an accurate reflection of true classroom practice.
And then comes the dreaded feedback. Even in schools where the culture is one of openness and trust, this whole process can make teachers feel incredibly vulnerable.
All of this is not to say, however, that there is no place whatsoever for INSET days or lesson observations in teacher development; it’s just that both approaches may need adapting to minimise the hierarchical nature of their design and implementation, and to ensure that they result in tangible, sustainable change.
Practical ways to foster a culture of teacher autonomy
Lasting change relies on people having control over their own development, so we need to hand over the reins to teachers. The question is how to do this in an effective but non-intrusive way. Here are some ideas:
Encourage teachers to invite other staff into lessons when they feel confident and comfortable to demonstrate a technique they are trialling as part of their practice.
Alternatively, they might want to go and watch, or shadow, another teacher in action. Formal feedback would then be replaced with a developmental, coaching-style conversation, where teachers pose questions, discuss strategies, and reflect on the efficacy of their practice.
When INSET day come around, it might be worth asking teachers where they feel their gaps are and allowing them to set the agenda themselves. Providing opportunities to break off into smaller hubs or groups to discuss specific areas of practice throughout the day can prove incredibly powerful.
Or you may ask staff to identify and share their preferred learning style with you e.g. peer-to-peer coaching; online, self-directed courses and training; or team-teaching with an expert practitioner. Armed with that information, you can craft much more timely and bespoke support, shaped by input from a range of different perspectives.
Encourage reflective practice, where staff video and review their own lessons, either alone or with a trusted peer. Using this non-intrusive, non-judgemental approach, teachers have the chance to analyse their own strengths and consider potential steps towards improvement. By taking small but purposeful steps towards agreed goals within clearly set out parameters, teachers gain an increased sense of value and confidence.
Outside the classroom, free-up time for your teachers to read up on the latest developments across the educational space and cherry-pick tips and techniques that they feel are relevant to their practice.
Setting out clear parameters
Whatever your approach, make sure you set out the parameters and expectations clearly with staff in advance. Agree a realistic timeframe and make sure there are opportunities for you to check in and reflect on progress in a collaborative manner. What will success look like? What impact will your CPD activity have on teaching and learning?
Most importantly of all, talk to your teachers. Keep the channels of communication open. Through having rich and fulfilling discussions with staff, no matter what your position in school, you can gain a deep insight into what makes them tick and which tools and mechanisms you need to provide to help them unleash their potential.
Release the idea of perfection
Teaching is not an exact science and often we place unrealistic expectations on staff. All this does is make them risk-averse for fear of getting it wrong.
Instead, we should foster a culture of self-reflection where mistakes are embraced, and where teachers can set themselves micro-goals that build incrementally towards overall improvement.
And it’s these small steps that are crucial to success: teachers need to be able to fulfil these successfully, otherwise the end goal remains intangible and unattainable.
Empowering staff development and creating a positive classroom climate is central to the success of any school. As the eminent educationalist, Professor Dylan Wiliam, says: “If we create a culture where every teacher believes they need to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better, there is no limit to what we can achieve.”
- Matt Tiplin has been a senior leader in a MAT and an Ofsted inspector. He is vice president of ONVU Learning. Visit www.onvulearning.com